


A Happy Thought

by midas_touch_of_angst



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Gryffindor Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Hogwarts, Hufflepuff Eleven, Hufflepuff Mike Wheeler, One Shot, Patronus, Ravenclaw Dustin Henderson, Ravenclaw Will Byers, Slytherin Lucas Sinclair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 07:36:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13095444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midas_touch_of_angst/pseuds/midas_touch_of_angst
Summary: The Party tries to summon their Patronuses. El seems to be having the hardest time.[One-Shot]





	A Happy Thought

**Author's Note:**

> So when I finish Season Two of "Right-Side Up" I'm planning to do a series of one-shots for it, but I kinda also want to have another longfic project and this is kinda a test one-shot to see if I might want to do a longer Hogwarts AU. I have plans but I want to see if I like this style and stuff. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! :D

“Holy _shit_!”

El looked up sharply, to see a ghostly image resembling a giant, fluffy cat burst from Dustin’s wand and rush through the air, barely missing her face as it flew past. Dustin let out a cheer, which was quickly picked up by the other kids.

“Nice work, Dustin!” Will congratulated, staring up at the cat as it started to fade away.

“I actually did it! Shit!” Dustin shook his head. “Didn’t think that would actually work.”

The Party were sitting around a nice room generated for them by the Room of Requirement; while there was a couch and a chair tucked into a corner, and a couple of landscape paintings on the dark blue wall, most of the large room was blank, leaving the kids plenty of space for Defense Practice. The only other thing they’d needed was a huge Grandfather Clock, to keep an eye on the time. Lucas had been the one to suggest using the room; while their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher wasn’t _bad_ , the six of them had all been through quite a bit more than the average Fourth-Year Student. So, one day, while they were all in the Library and studying stuff they already knew, Lucas suggested teaching themselves.

“Mike and Will can probably get Nancy and Jonathan’s Defense books.” Lucas shrugged. “Hell, Dustin could probably get Steve’s if he asked. It’d be… it’d be nice to know stuff that might come in handy in case…”

He hadn’t had to say _“In case the Gate opens again”_ , but they all understood. Especially El, who had shivered and reached down to grab Mike’s hand under the table. She didn’t like thinking about the Gate, and the possibility that it could open again, or that the Bad People would come to Hogwarts and try to take her away again. But she liked the idea of learning more Defense, even though her “bonus magic”- as Dustin had dubbed it- seemed to work fine for her.

They’d been working on Patronuses recently- their teacher had taught them about Dementors, and that had given most of them nightmares. El especially didn’t like the idea of a creature that might not be affected by her powers, one she would have to fight with a happy memory and a focused spell. So, they’d all started studying patronuses as soon as they could.

Max had been the first one to summon one, though it was a formless cloud instead of the animal it was supposed to be. They’d all eventually managed to get to that part, and the first one to get an animal was Lucas, who had summoned a Nightjar that managed to fly around the room for a solid twenty seconds.

“Hey, Mayfield, it’s your turn!” Lucas said from his spot sitting against the wall, and Max rolled her eyes and moved to the middle of the room. Dustin went to move and sit next to Will on the rug, flipping his wand in his hands.

“Alright, Stalker, let’s give this a shot.” Max sighed, raising her wand and shutting her eyes, looking like she was focusing very hard. “ _Expecto Patronum_.” she said, her voice barely above a whisper, and a silver light shot out of her wand, and then dissipated.

“I think that was pretty close.” said Will, watching the spot where the light had vanished.

“No, it wasn’t.” Max huffed.

“Wanna try again?” Lucas suggested.

“It’s Will’s turn.” Mike said. He and El were sitting just a little ways away from the two Ravenclaws, and El noticed Will get a quick, panicked look. He had a little more trouble focusing on happy memories than most of them; the only one who seemed to have more problems with their patronus was El.

“She can go one more time.” Will shrugged. “I don’t mind.”

“I think I can get it.” Max said, correcting her stance and raising her wand again, trying to focus again. Before she spoke the words this time, though, she relaxed a little, letting her shoulders drop, and El noticed a smile flicker across her face.

“ _E_ _xpecto Patronum_.”

A light shot out again, much stronger this time. And, after a second of hovering in a formless cloud, it started to take shape. The other kids gasped, and Max opened her eyes to see a bird burst forth, flying up into the air.

“Holy shit!” Lucas and Dustin both yelled, and Will started cheering.

“It’s a bird.” El identified, watching it flap above their heads.

Lucas paused, then stood up and whipped out his own wand, saying the spell and letting his own Nightjar burst forth. The two birds started circling each other, and Max said, slightly disappointed, “They’re not the same.”

“What bird is that?” Mike asked, turning to the Ravenclaws.

Dustin reached into his bag and dumped out a bunch of books. Will had a piece of paper in his hands, and was sketching as fast as he could, looking up at Max’s patronus as it slowly started dissipating.

“It’s cool that it flies.” Max said, smiling up at it. “Five Galleons says it flies better than Sinclair’s.”

Lucas shot her a glare; the two had a “Quidditch Rivalry”, even though Lucas wasn’t even on his House’s team. Max said something about it being a “Gryffindor/Slytherin Rivalry Thing”, which still confused them. El didn’t understand the whole House Rivalry to begin with, let alone any of its intricacies.

“I’ll bet Ten Galleons that mine flies better than the entire Gryffindor Team.” Lucas said, and Max lovingly flipped him off as she walked over to Dustin, who was comparing the sketch to pictures of birds in one of his books.

“I think that’s it.” Will said, pointing to a picture, and Dustin nodded.

“So, what’s that, then?” Max asked.

“Congratulations, Maxine Mayfield,” Dustin said, shutting the book and smiling up at her. “You’ve got a Magpie.”

“Magpie?”

“Whoa, those birds are smart as shit.” Mike said.

“Sweet, hope that means I’ll actually pass those finals.” Max tried to play it off, but El noticed she was having trouble keeping a smile off her face; she couldn’t blame her. She’d be excited to finally summon a patronus, too.

“Alright, Will’s turn.” Dustin said, smiling and pushing his friend. Will bit his lip and nodded, standing up and drawing his wand. Max moved back to sit by Lucas, smiling at him and whispering something in his ear as Will started to think.

Will finally mumbled the spell, and a bit of light shot out, before blinking away.

“Try again, Byers.” Max said.

“No, it’s fine…”

“Go ahead.” El spoke up, looking up at the Ravenclaw boy. “Try again.”

Will made another attempt. The cloud was slightly bigger this time, but still disappeared without a form. He shrugged and sat next to Dustin again, pulling out his scrap paper again and sketching something in the corner.

“Alright, Lucas, you wanna go again?” Dustin asked, turning to his friend.

“I mean, I’ve already figured out how to summon the thing.” Lucas shrugged.

“Do it again.” Dustin smiled. “It’s pretty darn cool.”

Lucas sighed and waved his wand, saying the spell, and the Nightjar burst out again. It lasted a bit longer this time, but eventually did fade away after flying towards the ceiling and circling for a while.

“Alright, up you go, Mike!” Dustin said, and El glanced over at her boyfriend next to her. Mike hesitated for a second, then shrugged and stood up.

Mike said the spell, and a thick silver cloud burst out. It looked like it was going to form something, but eventually blinked away. “Try again?” El suggested, but Mike shook his head.

“No, that’s as close as I’m gonna get right now.” he said, sitting down next to her again. “Haven’t had the best day. Why don’t you go?”

El glanced away, biting her lip. She didn’t really want to try again, but, well, it _was_ her turn. She might as well. She got to her feet, holding out her wand. It was weird, channeling magic through the stick of wood in her hands- which was eleven inches long, of _course_ it was. She had been told it was from a Beech Tree, with a Dragon Heartstring core, but it didn’t really matter what it was made from. It would help her channel most of her magic. She’d found out pretty quickly that most wizards couldn’t move things with just their mind or track people down through meditation. She was different, she was _powerful_.

And it was because of her power that she didn’t have many happy memories to focus on. Every time she thought of how much she loved spending time with Hopper, she thought about how he’d had to hide her away from the world for a year. When she thought about her first day at Hogwarts, she had to think about how she’d arrived a day earlier than everyone else so she could be sorted alone as a “transfer student.”

She said the spell, and a tiny sliver of light shot out, disappearing far too fast.

“Try one more time.” Mike said, smiling up at her. “You can do it.”

Maybe she could focus on his smile. There wasn’t any bad things connected to that. She tried again, and more light shot out, though it still disappeared before forming.

Dustin started to stand again, but El said, “Wait. Wait, let me try one more time.”

She didn’t know what made her say it; she hated the small amount of light she could form, while her friends had already managed animals, she hated trying to focus on one happy memory. But she wanted to try, just once more.

Dustin shrugged, and El held out her wand again, taking a deep breath. What could she think about? Hiding with the boys reminded her of running. Finding Kali reminded her of her almost-murder. Returning to her Family reminded her of the danger they’d all been in.

She was about to lower her wand again, when she remembered.

_“You look beautiful. Do you want to dance?”_

Hogwarts had hosted some kind of ball last Christmas, before she even went to school. She’d been allowed one night out to go, the excuse being that she was there to see if she would like Hogwarts, if she’d be able to socialize well. But she’d gone for Mike. To see him, to go to the dance with him.

_“I don’t know how.”_

_“I don’t either. Do you want to figure it out?”_

She couldn’t think of anything bad connected to the Snow Ball. They’d played a cheesy romantic song, they’d taught themselves how to dance by copying the people next to them, and they’d kissed. And they’d gotten to spend several hours dancing and hugging and talking until she’d had to go.

But she liked the kiss best.

“ _Expecto Patronum_.”

When she opened her eyes, she gasped as something _huge_ burst from her wand, shooting off into the room. Everyone screamed something, but before they could even tell what it was, it whirled in on itself and vanished.

“What was _that_?” Max asked, shocked.

“That was _huge_!” Dustin yelled.

“El, that was awesome!” Mike jumped to his feet, running over and giving her a side-hug. “That was so cool!”

El gave him a quick smile, wondering if he knew what she’d been thinking about. He probably didn’t, but he just seemed to happy to see her succeed.

“Do it again, we can figure out what-” Dustin began, but before they could, the clock chimed. They glanced over, seeing that it had hit _10:00_.

“Damn it!” Max swore, jumping up. “We gotta go, I got Quidditch Practice tomorrow.”

“You don’t want to stay late again?” Will asked jokingly.

“ _Hell_ no, I’m not falling asleep on my broom.” Max huffed. “And if one of you little shits falls asleep in class again, one of the teachers is gonna tail us and find out we’re sneaking off.”

“We’ll figure it out tomorrow.” Mike shrugged, reaching down to grab El’s hand. “Come on, let’s get to our dorms.”

“See you all tomorrow.” Dustin waved, jumping up and shoving his books back into his bag. “And, Wheeler, don’t screw up in Potions again tomorrow, I’d rather we _not_ blow up the Dungeons.”

“It was your fault!” Mike shot back as he walked to the door, swinging it open. He peered his head through, then said, “All clear.”

He and El went out first, rushing down the stairs towards the kitchens. Lucas ran down another staircase, heading towards his dorm in the Dungeons. Max split off to find the stairs towards the Gryffindor Dorms, while Dustin and Will ran towards Ravenclaw Tower.

They reached the barrels in the corner of the hall near the kitchens, and Mike tapped the right code, and it popped open. The two slid down, finding themselves in an empty Common Room. All the other students had gone to bed on time, which was lucky; they usually got odd looks and prying questions when they got back so late.

“I better get in there.” Mike whispered, glancing towards the door that led to the Boys’ Dorms. “If I’m any later, they’re gonna talk.”

“Talk?” El asked.

“Oh, trust me, you don’t want to know.” Mike said. “Rich has about twelve conspiracy theories about where I disappear to and is running a betting pool. He doesn’t believe the ‘studying’ excuse.”

“But we are studying.” El said.

Mike smiled at her. “Yeah, I guess we are. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

He gave her a quick kiss, and she beamed up at him. “Goodnight, Mike.”

“Goodnight, El.”

She snuck down to the Girls’ Dorms, then, noticing that all the other Hufflepuff Girls in her year were asleep already. They probably hadn’t even noticed she was gone; once the novelty of the new exchange student wore off, they didn’t really care that much about her. She didn’t mind; it was actually nice not being noticed all the time. And she had her friends, anyway. They cared about her.

She sat on her bed, and glanced around again, making sure that nobody was watching. Then, she held out her wand again, and whispered, “ _Expecto Patronum_.”

She smiled as the animal shot out, flying up towards the ceiling. She could see it very clearly, as it held longer than it had in the Room of Requirement.

_So, I’ve got a Phoenix._

El waited until it disappeared before throwing on her pyjamas and falling asleep, listening to the quiet sounds of the dorm room.


End file.
